3rd suspect captured in Addis murder case

U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force members have captured the third man indicted in the 2010 "murder for hire" of Corey Kitts in West Baton Rouge Parish.

Officials tell The Advocate ( http://bit.ly/WYWjfx) Corey Knox was arrested Thursday in New Orleans. Investigators have not disclosed Knox's alleged role in the slaying.

A grand jury on March 14 charged Knox, along with Karl Michael Howard and Monique O. Kitts with first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Howard surrendered to West Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies and was booked Wednesday evening into the parish jail just hours after District Judge Robin Free denied bond for co-defendant Monique Kitts, who already was in custody.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Monique Kitts shortly after the indictments were handed down March 14.

Investigators found Corey Kitts' body on July 9, 2010, in the bedroom of his residence in the River Landing subdivision in Addis, shot in the head three times at point-blank range.

Prosecutors at Monique Kitts' bond hearing said she hired Howard to kill her husband so she could cash in his life insurance policy.

After District Judge Robin Free judge refused Monique Kitts' request for bond, Assistant District Attorney Tony Clayton asked the court to amend her first-degree murder charge to a lesser count of second-degree murder.

Clayton said he moved to modify the charge against her because the state no longer seeks the death penalty in her case.